Metro News & Reviews

California Geological Survey issues letter about L.A. Weekly story

The California Geological Survey has sent Metro the letter posted below about its position on earthquake fault zones in the Century City area.

The letter was prompted by an L.A. Weekly story published in December headlined “Westside Subway Extension feud: Did Metro rig a Century City fault study to move the Purple Line?” That story reported that the California Geological Survey had previously deemed the Santa Monica Fault to be inactive, which prompted the Weekly to run this correction:

The article “Westside Subway Extension Feud” (Dec. 23) incorrectly stated that trenching, a method of fault testing, had been conducted on the Santa Monica Fault in the late 1970s and found the fault to be inactive. In fact, the fault was evaluated using mapping and other data, not trenching. The data was insufficient to deem the fault active or inactive.

As of Friday, the correction was still not attached to the online version of the story, which also did not identify the engineer quoted as being a consultant to the Beverly Hills Unified School District. Here is the letter from the California Geological Survey that clarifies its position on the Santa Monica Fault, the West Beverly Hills Lineamint and Alquist-Priolo fault designations: